Dead Realm 2
by Native Avenger
Summary: Isaac Clarke has escaped the Sprawl with his new ally, Ellie. Now that they are safe, Isaac remembers a promise he made to a certain purple dragon and he alone returns to the dragon planet. Unknown to them all however, the Dragon Realms holds a dark secret.
1. Titan Slayer

**Kwai kwai everyone! Many of you readers have been waiting patiently for Dead Realm 2 and it is finally here. I figured that you've been waiting long enough, so here you are. I hope you all enjoy this story. Remember to leave a review or send me a PM!**

Chapter 1: Titan Slayer

Nothing. But blue static could be seen and the crackling of white noise could be heard. There were some white flashes every so often, but the blue static would never go away. After a little while of waiting, text could be seen being typed into the barely functioning hologram.

**DAYS SINCE SPRAWL INCIDENT: 5**

_LOCATION:_ _EARTH MOON STATION/NEW HORIZONS _

**INCIDENT SURVIVORS**

_ISAAC CLARK: ENGINEERING AND SHIP SYSTEMS SPECIALIST [STATUS: ALIVE/MISSING]_

_ELLIE LANGFORD: HEAVY EQUIPMENT PILOT CLASS IV [STATUS: ALIVE/MISSING]_

**EARTH GOV PRIME TARGETS. HANDLE WITH EXTREME CAUTION...**

At this point, the blue static began to fade away and only darkness could be seen. Little white dots could be seen in the darkness and it could be seen that these dots were actually stars. If one looked downward, a city could be seen.

This city was on the surface of Earth's only moon and lights kept the city bright and out of the dark. The buildings looked like they were made out of hard metals and the windows were made out of average glass. Various futuristic vehicles could be seen going a very high speeds throughout the city and people were wandering around all over the place, most likely going to work.

Within one of these futuristic buildings was a middle-aged man sitting at a desk in his bedroom. This man was none other than Isaac Clarke. He wasn't wearing any type of suit, just civilian clothes.

Isaac wore a black jacket with a white undershirt and dark blue jeans. Black boots were covering his feet and he was also wearing fingerless gloves. Lastly, the back of his jacket had a standard RIG with a glowing blue health bar going down his spine.

The engineer sighed and looked over to his left to see a mirror on the side of the wall. The oval shaped mirror showed his reflection and he stared at his aged face. He could easily see the dark bags under his eyes and his graying black hair. He rubbed his chin and was able to both feel and see the faint stubble that was in the early stages of a beard.

After he and Ellie escaped the Sprawl five days ago, they came to the moon station in an attempt to escape Earth Gov, who has been hunting them. They adopted fake names and rented two separate apartments within the same building.

Isaac sighed as he leaned back in his sear and thought about everything that he's gone through. He recalled how he travelled through the dark corridors if the USG Ishimura, aided the purple dragon in the Dragon Realms, being captured by Earth Gov, being forced to help build Markers, and him escaping the Necromorph infested Sprawl.

His train of thought went back to his time on the dragon planet and he remembered how he promised that he would return someday. There was some kind of Marker signal on that planet and he had friends there.

'I really should go there soon.' the engineer thought to himself with another soft sigh.

Isaac was brought out of his train of thought when holographic screen appeared above the desk and he looked a into see Ellie's face. He looked at her dark hair that was tied back into pig tails and he could see that she was wearing a tank top. He also couldn't help, but notice the eyepatch she had over her right eye. He remembered how Stross cut her eye out with a screwdriver back on the Sprawl.

"Hey Isaac. Just thought I'd check in on ya." Ellie greeted with a friendly smile.

"Hi Ellie. As you can see, I'm doing fine." he replied as he smiled back; seeing her always made him feel more at ease.

"That's good to hear." the pilot commented with a light chuckle. "So, what's the plan for today?" she asked curiously.

"Well, remember that gunship we used to escape the Sprawl?" Isaac questioned as he scratched the back of his head.

"Ugh, yeah. The gunship's in the docking bay across the street." Ellie answered a little awkwardly, not knowing why he was asking about it.

"Okay. Can you meet me there in a little while? I'll explain why I need it there." he requested.

"Okay, Isaac. I'll be there in a few minutes." Ellie told him before she cut the transmission and the hologram disappeared with a crackle of static.

Once the hologram was gone, Isaac pulled open the desk's drawer and looked inside to see two different kinds of plasma cutters. The one on the left was the one he had made out of a flashlight and a medical tissue laser back on the Sprawl. The other one next to it was the standard 211-V plasma cutter.

Isaac bought the normal plasma cutter two days after he arrived on the earth moon station. Even though he wouldn't be alive right now if it wasn't for the medical plasma cutter he made, he didn't feel really as comfortable without the one he used back on the Ishimura.

Not wanting to waste time, the engineer grabbed the 211-V plasma cutter and clipped it to his belt. He then stood up, took one last look around his apartment, and walked over to the metal door.

Looking at the center of the door, he could see a blue hologram with the word "OPEN?" on it. He tapped the hologram with two of his fingers and after a second or two of waiting, the door slid open.

Once Isaac stepped out of the apartment, the door slid shut behind him and the blue hologram turned red, showing that it was now locked. He looked over his shoulder at the locked door before he turned left and commenced to walk down the currently empty hallway.

* * *

At the docking bay, Ellie was leaning against the side of the gunship she and Isaac used to escape the Sprawl. She was wearing a light gray tank top with dark brown cargo pants. She was also wearing brown work boots and matching fingerless gloves.

Her one good eye darted around the room until it stopped at the entrance. She smiled when Isaac entered the hanger and she waved him over.

"There you are, Isaac. What did you need the gunship for? Are you going on a trip?" the pilot asked curiously once she felt like he was close enough.

"Yeah, actually. I um.. I promised a friend of mine that I'd visit him." Isaac answered hesitantly as he looked over at the gunship.

"Okay, where does this friend of yours live?" Ellie asked curiously as she stood up straight and opened the ship's hatch by pressing a holographic button on the door.

"He lives on a planet in the Purpora System. Look Ellie, I kinda wanna go there alone." the engineer answered with a sigh as he walked over to the ship's entrance.

"Not without me your not." she replied sternly as she blocked him off with her hand.

"Ellie, I told you where I was going and what I'm going to be doing..." Isaac started with a sigh.

"I don't care. Earth Gov is still looking for us. It's too dangerous to travel alone." the heavy equipment pilot replied with a straight face.

"I will be fine. I need to do this alone, but I won't let them find me. Same with those Unitologists." Isaac stated softly as he looked into her blue eye.

Ellie obviously didn't like the thought of him traveling by himself, especially with the state of mind he was currently in. She's noticed how paranoid he has been getting he had constant nightmares. She slowly looked down as she thought about this.

"Okay look, I'll go as far as send you my coordinates. If I'm not back within a week, then come in find me. In the meantime..." Isaac paused and pulled out a couple thousand credits out of his pocket. "...use this to get a um.. an artificial eye." he told her with a soft tone of voice.

"Isaac... you don't have to give me your money. It's yours." Ellie told him as she slowly shook her head.

"Most of it is stolen from the Sprawl anyway. Just take it." he replied as he held out the money for her.

Hesitantly, she slowly grabbed the credits in his hand and looked at the amount she was given. Artificial body parts were expensive, but she believed that she could get a new eye with this.

"Thanks. Okay, go and visit your friend. I'll see you in a week, I guess." Ellie spoke after a short moment of silence and she stepped aside for him.

Isaac nodded and walked into the gunship. The motion sensors detected his presence and all the lights and holograms turned on.

"Hey Isaac?" Ellie spoke as she pocketed the credits that were given to her.

The engineer stopped and silently turned around to face her.

"Be safe. Because if you end up dying, I'm gonna kick your ass." she said sternly as she tried desperately not to smile.

Isaac chuckled at this and nodded in response. He liked her sense of dark humor.

"I will; count on it." he replied with a small smile before he pressed a blue holographic button next to the door frame and the hatch slowly slid closed.

Once the door was securely closed, the engineer made his way over to the pilot's seat at the front of the ship and sat down. He pressed a few of the holographic buttons and the military grade vehicle began to slowly hover in the air.

Outside the ship, Ellie watched as he piloted the gunship towards the hanger's exit and flew off into space.

"Be safe, Isaac." she mumbled to herself before she walked towards the exit.

Isaac flew the gunship away from Earth's moon and out into open space. Once he was far enough away from the space stations, he typed in the coordinates to the dragon planet.

He then activated the shock point drives and it then looked like he was flying through a bright blue cloud known as shockspace. The ship was now traveling faster than the speed of light and was fast approaching the Purpura system.

After merely a five minute wait, Isaac activated the de-shocking process and the gunship quickly slowed down to a normal pace. He looked out the windshield to see the dragon planet wasn't too far away now.

'I haven't been here in a long time.' Isaac thought to himself as he stared at the Earth-like planet.

The engineer switched the ship's systems to autopilot before he stood up and walked to the back of the ship. There was two space suits hanging from the wall and they were side by side.

One of the suits was a red-orange jumpsuit with a gray colored helmet made out of metal. The helmet had a face visor that would allow other people to see the wearer's face. This suit belonged to Ellie.

The suit next to it was none other than Isaac's advanced suit hanging from the wall. The suit looked relatively unchanged except there were a few bloodstains here and there, and some of the metal plates on it looked a little lose from all the abuse the suit took back on the Sprawl.

'I hope Spyro and the others will still be able to recognize me.' the middle aged man thought to himself as he took off his fingerless gloves and black jacket.

Isaac set those articles of clothing on top of a container to his left before he took the heavy space suit off the wall. He manually detached the complex looking helmet and put it down on the floor before he oprned up the suit so that the chest area split in two and he could easily put on the suit.

The engineer took his time putting on the advanced suit and once all of his limbs were in, he sealed the suit and reattached the chest area. The fabric and metal hugged his body closely and the health bar going down his spine glowed light blue.

'Everything seems to be working functionally.' Isaac thought to himself as he looked over the suit and and manually flapped a few of the rocket thrusters located on his shoulders.

There was an echoing clang all of a sudden and the man gasped in surprise. He quickly grabbed his 211-V plasma cutter and carefully looked around the area. He groaned in annoyance and lowered his tool however when he realized he merely knocked the helmet over with his foot.

'Even when I'm not going crazy, I'm jumpy as fuck.' Isaac thought to himself with a frown and he put his plasma cutter in his inventory.

With a sigh, he scooped up his helmet and quickly placed it over his head. Once it locked to his suit, he willed it to fold away from his face and into his suit, storing it.

With the helmet securely in his suit, Isaac looked at the container he set his jacket and gloves on. He moved the clothes to the side before he opened the container and took out the first item he saw.

Isaac pulled out a SWS Motorized Pulse Rifle and he looked it over. The military grade rifle looked to be perfectly functional and the triple barrels were all capable of firing. He upgraded the weapon to be a lot more useful for cutting off limbs by increasing the damage it did to limbs and the ammunition capacity. The weapon held one hundred and fifty bullets per magazine.

Like the plasma cutter, he placed the weapon into his inventory and reached inside the container. This time, the engineer pulled out a javelin gun that he first used on the sprawl. This weapon fired titanium spikes that could be activated to send out a large electrical shock, which was meant to break down astroids. He upgraded the tool to hold six javelin spears and the electrical shock did more damage.

Once he put the weapon in his inventory as well, Isaac took out the last weapon in the container, a PFM-100 Hydrazine Torch Flamethrower. This was a handheld torch that was capable of firing a blue flame that could easily melt through flesh and bone, due to him to upgrading the amount of damage it delivered to the mac. He also upgraded it so he could load in the most amount of hydrazine fuel.

Satisfied with his final tool, the engineer placed the torch in his inventory and closed the container. He made his way back over to the pilot's seat and sat down. He looked at the noticeably closer planet outside the windshield and quickly typed in his coordinates into the system. He then sent the coordinates to Ellie's RIG just in case he wasn't back within a week.

Once some text on the holographic screen read "MESSAGE SENT" Isaac looked though the windshield. He stared at the Earth-like planet and it's two moons as he typed in a few holographic keys.

The gunship he was in got closer and closer to the planet and after a short wait, he entered the planet's atmosphere. Through the windshield, the engineer could see that it was night out on the part of the planet and a mushroom forest could be seen below.

'Okay, I know exactly where I am now.' he thought to himself as he spotted what looked like a temple in the distance.

Something didn't feel quite right however. It was one of those moments where one would feel as if something was wrong or something bad was about to happen.

Not wanting to take any chances, Isaac piloted the ship over a clearing that was about two miles away from the temple. The ship slowly lowered onto the ground until it came to a full stop and landed.

'Now there's just one more thing I have to do.' the middle aged man thought to himself as he opened up a file on the ship's computer and quickly typed in his RIG's vitals.

Once he finished typing, his name was displayed on the screen and his health bar was show. Under it.

'Perfect.' he thought to himself before he closed out of the file and powered down the gunship.

The holographic buttons and keyboard disappeared with a beep and the engine soon stopped running. After everything had shut off, the engineer stood up from his seat and walked over to the hatch. He pressed a blue hologram on the door and after a few seconds of waiting, the door slid open.

Isaac stepped out of the ship and he turned around to watch the door close and a red hologram appeared on it. The word "locked" could be seen typed out on the hologram.

Satisfied with this, the engineer looked around the area he was in with his blue eyes. All of a sudden, the chest and back plates began to open up and pieces of his helmet mechanically slid over his head until the suit's helmet took shape. Once all the pieces were in place, they locked together and the helmet's four visible visors began to glow in a shade of light blue.

Now that the helmet was securely on, the armored engineer took out his plasma cutter just in case one of the planet's hostile inhabitants tried to attack him. He raised the weapon as the three laser sights came on and the holographic ammo counter appeared next to the weapon. Currently, the plasma cutter held twenty shots.

"Here we go." Isaac mumbled with an echoed voice before he walked into the mushroom swamp.


	2. A Helping Hand

**Kwai kwai everyone! I'm kinda surprised just how many of you were waiting for this story. Even though I'm still working on Turok: Skræling Warrior, I'll write this story as well. I would like to thank Warrior of Spectra because he's the reason why I'm able to post anything right now. My computer has crapped out and he's letting me PM my stories to him so he can send it back to me via docx. That's all I wanted to say; remember to leave a review or send me a PM!**

Chapter 2: A Helping Hand

It was a dark night in the old dragon temple and almost everyone within the ancient structure was asleep. The dragon Guardians were asleep in their quarters and the purple dragon of legend, Spyro, was sleeping in the room he's been staying in for about half a year now. This planet's years anyway, and not Earth years.

Cynder was also given her own room to sleep in, but she couldn't sleep at the moment. The black dragoness was on the floor, laying down on her belly, and she was looking down in deep thought.

She's been very stressed ever since Spyro and Isaac Clarke rescued her from the Dark Master's control. She felt guilty about all the terrible things she was forced to do in the past. The others kept telling her that it wasn't her fault and that they forgave her, but she couldn't forgive herself. She remembered how she wanted to turn Spyro and his friends into slaves while she killed anyone else who stood in her way.

And then there were the nightmares. Ever since that fateful battle in Convexity, Cynder's been having extremely disturbing nightmares. Ones involving hazy monsters chasing her in the dark and strange symbols she couldn't understand. It frightened her, but she refused to tell the others about her nightmares because she didn't want them to worry about her.

To Cynder, it felt like everything was against her at this point. This only fueled her depression and made her feel alone.

'Why do I stay here? I'm no good to anyone and Sparx always tells everyone that I'd be better off leaving... maybe he's right." the black dragoness thought to herself with a miserable look on her face.

With a heavy sigh, the former Terror of the Skies stood up and walked towards the door. Due to the circular door's magical properties, it slid open when she was close enough and she slowly walked through the now open doorway.

'It would be better for everyone if i just left.' Cynder thought to herself as her emerald green eyes looked around the dark temple halls and started walking.

Little did she know however, Sparx the dragonfly was watching her walk down the hall. He looked worried at first, but he soon started to relax as he realized her true intentions.

'Good. The evil she-dragon is leaving. Maybe now I can get some sleep.' the dragonfly thought to himself before he flew off towards Spyro's room.

Cynder didn't notice Sparx's presence and she continued to make her way down the halls. It didn't take her long to reach the Guardians' quarters and she frowned heavily as the door opened, revealing the sleeping Guardians.

The only exit to the temple was through the Guardians. This was because the Guardians wanted to defend Spyro and Cynder just in case anyone or anything ever tried to sneak into the temple.

'I just gotta be very quiet. That shouldn't be too hard.' the black dragoness thought to herself with a light sigh.

After waiting for a short moment, she began to silently walk forward at a steady pace. She paid special attention to where she was stepping so she wouldn't accidentally bump into one of the sleeping Guardians.

It didn't take too long for Cynder to reach the other side of the room and the magical door slid open. She flinched because of the sound the door made when it opened and she hesitantly looked over her shoulder.

The Guardians didn't seem bothered at all by the door opening and they continued to snore lightly. Not wanting to take any chances, the black scaled dragoness walked out of the room and the door slid shut behind her.

'That was easier than I thought it would be.' she thought to herself with a relieved sigh.

Without a second thought, Cynder quickly made her way down the halls until she made it to the door that would lead her outside. When she got close enough to it, the door slid open like any other door in the temple.

The night air breezed into the room and the dragoness inhaled the cold, swamp air. The two moons in the sky were mostly full and there were few clouds in the sky.

'It's not really safe to be out here at night, but I have to get out of here.' Cynder thought to herself as she looked around the dark garden.

With a deep breath, the black scaled dragoness made her way into the garden with her green eyes cautiously darting around. Since she couldn't use her powers right now, the only thing she could rely on right now was stealth.

She walked up to a ledge nearby and made her way through a small path with thick vines around it. She was thin enough to make her way through without having to destroy the vines, much to her relief. This was good because destroying the vines might've attracted unwanted attention.

Once the dragoness was through, she took a short moment to look around. There was a stone alter nearby and she glanced at it. She didn't know what it was for, but it looked very old. She stared at the object for a bit before she decided that it was time to head out, but something stopped her.

"Cynder, what are you doing out here? It's dangerous." a familiar voice spoke behind her as she heard a set of four footsteps approaching her.

The dark dragoness turned her body around to see Spyro himself had followed or tracked her out here. She mentally groaned because she knew that he wouldn't want her to leave and she was hoping she wouldn't have to face him when she left.

"You shouldn't have followed me, Spyro." Cynder told him with slight irritation in he voice.

"That's good enough for me." Sparx commented loudly. "See ya! Huh." he added happily before he began to fly off, but stopped when he noticed that his brother wasn't following him.

"Please, don't make this harder for me than it already is." Cynder practically begged with a heavy frown.

"I'm just trying to understand." the purple dragon replied with eyes filled with confusion.

"I'm leaving, Spyro. I don't belong here." the dragoness explained to him as her tail curled around so her tailblade was resting on the ground in front of her. "After all I've done, all I've put you through... I can't stay." she said sadly.

"Cynder, nobody blames you for what happened." Spyro comforted with a soft tone of voice.

"Huh, I do. Speak for yourself." Sparx commented selfishly, wanting Cynder to just leave already.

"Sparx..." the purple dragon started with a look of disapproval.

"No, Sparx is right. And every day that goes by, I'm reminded of it." Cynder defended the glowing yellow dragonfly. "Spyro, your place is here, your destiny is here... but mine is somewhere out there for me to find." she spoke with her head down.

"Cynder, I don't want you to go." Spyro commented softly as he felt emotional pain in his heart.

"Goodbye, Spyro..." Cynder said her farewell before she whipped around and sprinted away from them.

She didn't look back or slow down, all the black dragoness did was run away. That's all she thought to do. There was a pain in her heart too, but her pain had multiple origins.

Cynder shook away her thoughts of what just happened and focused on running through the dark mushroom swamp.

* * *

In another part of the swamps, Isaac Clarke was slowly making his way down a dirt path. His heavy breaths could be heard behind his space helmet and he held his plasma cutter in a death grip.

The engineer's only source of light was the faded blue light that his helmet's visors provided and the flashlight built into his plasma cutter. His tool also provided three blue lasers that functioned as targeting lasers.

Isaac felt very cautious and on edge at the moment. Maybe it was because of the darkness or his paranoia, but something seemed off. He felt like something bad was about to happen at any moment.

There was a loud snap of a twig somewhere in the darkness and the armored human's muscles stiffened. He heard it come from somewhere behind him, so he slowly looked over his shoulder.

He spotted what looked like two apes holding swords rush out of the thick foliage and they looked directly at him. The apes had gray fur and wore yellow lion-cloths. They must've spotted his advanced suit's lights and holograms, and decided to attack.

"Get the light monster!" the ape to the left shouted before it rain forward with it's sword raised.

Before the ape could get very far however, a plasma bolt was shot out of Isaac's plasma cutter and it cut clean through the ape's arm.

"GAH!" the ape screeched with wide eyes as it's arm fell to the muddy ground, still holding the sword.

"No! It's the armored beast of legend!" the other ape screamed in fear before it cowardly ran away, leaving it's injured ally behind.

'I don't have time for this.' Isaac thought to himself as he held his tool in one hand and raised his left hand.

The kinesis module on his wrist activated and a gravitational beam shot out of his hand. The beam connected with the severed arm and pulled it in front of Isaac with the sword pointed at the now trembling ape.

Without a second thought, Isaac willed the arm to shoot forward at the speed of a bullet. The sword pierced trough the injured ape's abdomen and the momentum made the ape fly through the air until it hit the side of a giant mushroom. The sword stuck to the mushroom and the ape went limp as it was stuck to the huge fungus.

The whole scene was brutal and somewhat cruel, but Isaac didn't really care. He was acting in self defense and didn't want to waste his ammunition.

'I better get out of here before more monkeys show up. I should at least try to avoid killing so many people.' Isaac thought to himself with a light sigh.

With that in mind, the armored man kept his tool at the ready just in case he was attacked again and commenced to move cautiously down the dirt path again. He knew that this path would lead him to the temple if he followed it for awhile.

The dark swamp was only lit up because of his plasma cutter's flashlight and three laser sights. Everything else seemed to be almost pitch black. The basic shapes of the large mushrooms and foliage could be seen outside the flashlight's beam, but it was still hard to see without the light.

A faint noise could be heard all of a sudden and Isaac stopped walking when his keen ears picked up the sound. He stayed very quiet so he could hear it. The noise sounded like light footsteps from a four legged animal.

Not wanting to take any chances, he scanned his plasma cutter around the area in front of him and his eyes darted around behind his helmet's glowing blue visors.

Isaac finally spotted movement just outside his flashlight's light and he quickly aimed his tool at whatever had just moved. He was greatly surprised however when he saw Cynder within the light coming from his tool.

* * *

Cynder's green eyes widened in surprise as a bright light appeared all of a sudden. She was blinded slightly because her eyes were not adjusted to the light and she blinked several times in an attempt to get her eyes adjusted to the sudden light.

'By the ancestors, it's a human!' she screamed in her head when she saw the shape of an adult man where the light was coming from.

The human slowly lowered his light machine so that she wouldn't be blinded, but she was still within the light. She squinted her eyes to see that the human was wearing some sort of skintight metal armor with glowing blue visors on the helmet. She didn't recognize the armor however, so she kept alert.

"Cynder?" the human asked with a familiar voice.

"I-Isaac?!" the black dragoness almost shouted in surprise.

Isaac lowered his tool completely so it was aiming at the ground, but he kept the light on so they could still see. He started to walk over to her A a slow pace so he wouldn't spook her.

Cynder gasped in surprise when his helmet began to fold up and away from his head until it slid into his suit. She recognized the human's face as Isaac and she immediately relaxed.

"Isaac, it is you." Cynder finally spoke with a relaxed sigh. "What are you doing back here anyway?" she asked curiously.

"I promised you guys I'd return, didn't I?" the space engineer replied with a small smile.

The black dragoness smiled back, but she frowned again because of his really bad timing. It was hard enough having to tell Spyro she was leaving, but now she had to tell Isaac after he just arrived.

"Look... Isaac, just go to the temple and stay with them. I need to go." she told him with a sad tone of voice.

"And where are you going? Don't you think it'd be safer to travel together? And where are you going anyway?" Isaac questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't belong at the temple. I did so many terrible things... I just can't stay there." the black scaled dragoness explained with a sigh at the end.

"Cynder, I know that you've done some bad things, but I've met a bunch of people who've done even worse stuff than you and they don't feel sorry about it like you do." the armored engineer comforted as he walked up to her and rested his gloved hand on her shoulder.

Cynder actually did feel a little better when he said that. Despite this however, she still wanted to leave and it showed from her facial expression.

"You still wanna leave, huh?" Isaac asked with a frown.

"I'm sorry... but I can't go back there." the former "Terror of the Skies" apologized as she looked down at her feet.

"Fine. Which way are we headed?" Isaac asked, causing the dragoness to sharply look up at him with wide eyes.

"Isaac..." she started.

"Don't start with me, Cynder. Spyro has a RIG I made, so I can keep in contact with him. I'm not gonna let you aimlessly wander around at night when there's dangerous creatures out there." the engineer explained with a stern tone of voice.

Realizing that there was nothing she could say to dissuade him, Cynder nodded slowly. Isaac nodded back before he slowly pulled his hand away and took a step back.

His suit's chest and back plates opened up all of a sudden and the suit's helmet plates slid out. The metal plates slid over his face until it resembled the suit's helmet again and his head was completely covered with metal. The metal plates locked together with various clicks and the visors lit up as they powered up.

Cynder was impressed that his suit's helmet could simply fold over his head and into his suit like that. She wanted to know where he got that new suit of his and what he's been doing since she last saw him.

She shook those thoughts away however because she had to focus on what was happening now. Spyro wasn't joking when he said it was dangerous to be out at night and they had to stay alert.

"Okay Isaac, let's just go before something bad happens." the young dragoness suggested with a sigh at the end.

Almost as soon as she said that however, a large explosion was heard in the far distance. The two companions jumped slightly from the echoing sound and the human immediately looked around the area with his plasma cutter at the ready.

All of a sudden, four muscular apes that were holding swords jumped out of the foliage around them. They screeched loudly as they ran forward with their weapons raised. Cynder gasped in fear because not only did the apes want her dead for leaving them, but she also couldn't use any of her powers right now Because of her battle with Spyro In Convexity.

Without hesitation, Isaac lined up his tool's laser sights with one of the ape's necks and shot it's head clean off. He then aimed at the one to his left and gave it the same treatment. The other two apes were able to get close however and the human grunted in pain when one of the apes sliced it's sword against his lower side.

The black dragoness saw the health bar on the engineer's back go down and it went from bright blue to yellow-green. She attempted to attack the ape who hurt her friend, but the second ape grabbed her by the neck and slammed her against the ground.

"I'm gonna kill you, traitor!" the furious ape screamed as it tightened the grip it had on her thin neck.

Isaac jumped back when the other ape attempted to attack him again and he shot it's arm off at point blank range. It screeched in agony as it's sword wielding arm fell to it's feet and it simply ran away before it's opponent could finish it off.

The armored human looked over at the ape choking his friend and he frowned heavily behind his helmet. He rushed forward and with a loud grunt, smashed the side of his plasma cutter against the ape's head, cracking it's skull in the process.

The ape gasped in surprise and fear as it fell to the side and it cupped a hand over it's ringing ear. Before the ape could get up, the space engineer raised his boot and quickly brought it down on the ape's head with yet another grunt. The force of the stomp was enough to partially crush it's skull, but he stomped it's head two more times to be sure that it wouldn't get up again.

With brain matter and blood all over the corpse's body, Isaac slowly turned to look at Cynder and held out his left hand. She panted heavily as she regained her breath and she gently placed her paw over his open hand.

"Thank you." she managed to say as she breathed heavily.

"No problem, Cynder." the middle aged man pulled her to her feet and he quickly switched from his plasma cutter to his javelin gun to conserve ammunition.

He motioned for her to keep walking with him once she was up and he knew she could walk again. He didn't want her to see the mangled corpses. Much to his relief, Cynder continued to walk down the dirt path with the injured engineer by her side and they left the bodies to rot in the mud. Something told them that their journey would lead them to great hardships.


	3. The Dark Swamp

**Kwai kwai everyone! I decided to have Isaac partner up with Cynder instead of Spyro because we never really find out what exactly happened to her during TLoS: The Eternal Night. I thought it'd be interesting to explore her side of things during the course of the game. Of course, there is a certain Dead Space twist to it. Anyway, remember to leave a review or send me a PM!**

Chapter 3: The Dark Swamp

The mushroom swamp was very dark and dangerous at this time of night. The faint sounds of fighting could be heard in the distance, but it was far enough not to worry too much about it.

As of now, Isaac and Cynder were cautiously walking down a dirt path together. They were still very cautious because of the apes they fought earlier and they kept their guard up.

"So, Isaac... when'd you get here?" Cynder questioned, wanting to break the awkward silence.

"An hour or two ago actually." the armored human answered honestly as he instinctively kept his plasma cutter at the ready.

"Really? Huh... you must've been busy." the black dragoness commented and she took that moment to admire his new space suit.

"You could say that... I destroyed another Marker." Isaac replied a little awkwardly. "Spyro told you about those, right?" he asked a little hopefully, not really wanting to talk about those infamous artifacts at the moment.

Cynder nodded with a slight shiver. She recalled how right after Isaac left the Dragon Realms, Spyro explained to her everything he was told about the Markers and what they were capable of. This might've been the reason why she kept experiencing those horrifying hallucinations all those months ago, but she didn't like the thought of a Marker being on their home planet and hoped she was just hallucinating because of stress.

"So, Cynder... where are we going exactly?" Isaac asked curiously and with a little more energy than before, wanting to change the dreary subject.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe we cou-" Cynder began.

She was interrupted however by a loud screech and something in the dark began to rush towards them. Isaac quickly shined his light towards the creature to reveal a dark purple, almost black, spider that was three times the size of Cynder spinning towards them with it's legs sticking out.

The space engineer let out a surprised and pained scream as the spider's legs smashed against his side and he fell to the ground. His already yellow health bar went down a little lower, but he was still in decent shape.

"Isaac!" Cynder shouted in horror and she looked a the spider, which had stopped spinning at this point.

Now that it wasn't moving, she could see the bright purple spikes sticking out of it's body and it's equally purple eyes stared directly at her, completely devoid of emotion.

Wanting to protect her friend, the black dragoness rushed towards the nocturnal arachnid with her head down. The spider wasn't expecting her to charge and tried to jump to the side, but it was too slow and her six horns punctured it's hard exoskeleton.

The spider let out a pained screech from the attack and attempted to swat her away with one of it's legs, but Cynder rolled to the side to avoid the attack and she roughly sliced her silver colored claws in an upwards motion. This actually caused the spider to flip onto it's back and it struggled to get back up.

The black dragoness recalled a certain combat technique that the apes taught her during her service as the Terror of the Skies and she got an idea. With a deep breath, she jumped up into the air above the spider and flapped her red colored wings for extra leverage. Once she was high enough for her liking, she performed an unfinished front flip so her horns were pointing straight down.

Letting gravity do the rest, Cynder fell towards the spider. It didn't take long for her six horns to impale the spider's vulnerable underbelly, causing much of it's bright yellow blood to gush out.

The nocturnal creature let out one last screech before it went limp and died on the spot. The black dragoness pulled her horns out of the corpse before she hopped onto the muddy ground. She flicked her head to the side to get most of the spider blood off her horns and head before she walked over to the now standing engineer.

"That was fucking impressive." Isaac stated simply, causing the young dragoness to smile.

"Thanks, Isaac. Are you okay to head out?" the black scaled dragoness asked, hoping he wasn't hurt too bad.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me." the engineer assured as he activated his suit's quick heal and his health bar went up to blue.

The two companions flinched when they heard more screeching and a small group of spiders dropped down from the mushrooms above them. Cynder was very nervous because they were outnumbered and even though she took down that one spider, she still couldn't use any of her elements.

"Stay behind me!" Isaac said loudly as he put away his plasma cutter and replaced it in favor of his handheld flamethrower.

One of the spiders began to spin around like the first one did with it's legs extending out, almost like spinning clubs. Before it could get too close however, the armored human quickly took aim and squeezed the flamethrower's trigger.

A wall of blue flames shot out of the tool and the spider stopped spinning when the blazing hot inferno consumed it. Cynder watched as the spider screeched and twitched until it collapsed onto the ground. It's body was now charred black and small patches of blue flames were still burning on it's body.

The other spiders must have been frightened by the fire because they rushed away as fast as they could as soon as the unique blue fire appeared. Isaac slowly looked around to make sure they wouldn't be jumped again and he lowered his flamethrower when he deemed the area safe, a least for the time being.

"Wow... never thought I'd see blue fire before." Cynder commented, seemingly impressed.

"I've gotten better at modding my tools." the space engineer replied With a small grin behind his helmet.

"So I see." the dragoness replied with a slight smile.

Even though she originally and still kind of wanted to travel alone, she was glad to have company. She figured that she'd let him travel with her until they reached a village or something similar and then they could go their separate ways.

"Let's keep going before those spider things get brave and attack again." Isaac suggested as he motioned towards the dirt path they were originally walking down.

"Sounds good to me." she replied with a nod and they started walking again.

Nothing happened at first. The nocturnal animals stayed clear away from the two companions and the only sounds that could be heard were their footsteps, some crickets, and the sound of an owl in the distance.

The lack of fighting or enemy activity actually unnerved them more than it comforted them. In their experience, being in any dark area alone was a bad sign. Not wanting to endure the awkward silence any longer, Cynder finally spoke up.

"Um... where have you been since you were last here?" she asked somewhat awkwardly, not at all used to talking to him, especially when she didn't have an actual face to look at.

"Titan Station, or he Sprawl as it's also called. It's a space station on a moon in my solar system." the engineer answered, but he didn't seem to happy about that fact.

"What did you do there?" the dragoness asked as she stepped over a puddle of water on her side of the dirt path.

"That's kind of a long story..." the armored human started with a light sigh.

He was interrupted when a rectangle shaped hologram appeared in front of his face and the sound of static could be heard. The video feed soon kicked in and Spyro could be seen within the hologram.

"Isaac! My RIG you built me picked up your signal." the purple dragon said excitedly, obviously glad to see the human. "Is that a new suit?" he asked quickly, still sounding overjoyed.

"Hello to you too." Isaac replied with a chuckle. "Yeah, I got this suit not too long ago." he answered.

"Hey um, when'd you get here anyway?" Spyro asked curiously and Isaac noticed the four Guardians standing in the background behind the young dragon.

"I landed my ship in the swamps a few hours ago. I um, I bumped into Cynder and I'm traveling with her now." the middle aged man explained, not sure if talking about the dragoness was a good idea.

"Cynder is with you! Where are you two?!" the purple dragon asked a little quickly, obviously worried about her safety.

Isaac hesitated and thought about his answer. He noticed Cynder shaking her head in his peripheral vision and he could tell she didn't want him or the Guardians knowing her location.

"Ugh... she doesn't want me telling you that. Don't worry though, I'll keep her safe." the space engineer finally said and he heard Cynder sigh in relief.

Spyro seemed a little hurt by this response, but he relaxed when he realized that they were going to stick together.

"Okay, just stay safe. The Temple was attacked earlier by the apes and we've decided to leave." Spyro informed them both.

"Shit. Really? Is everyone okay?" Isaac questioned and he glanced at the black dragoness to his right to see that she looked very concerned.

"We're all okay, don't worry about that. I'll explain everything later, okay? I need to go right now." the purple dragon informed them, but it looked like he didn't want to stop talking to the human.

"Yeah, that's fine. It seems like we both have a lot to explain. We'll talk later." Isaac replied before the video transition was cut and the hologram disappeared.

The armored human sighed heavily before he looked over at his dragon companion.

"It's my fault that the apes attacked the Temple. They were coming for me, I know it." she murmured, clearly upset by what happened.

"Hey, it's alright. Even if they did want you, it wasn't your fault. From what Spyro said, he and the Guardians kicked the apes' asses anyway." Isaac comforted as his helmet folded into his suit, revealing his aged face.

"But the apes will be looking for me and they'll try to kill you now for helping me..." Cynder replied as she took a step back.

"Let them come. They haven't been able to stop me before. And I'm not gonna let you run off by yourself with those brutes after you. It'll be safer for everyone if we stick together." he spoke with a soft yet stern tone of voice.

This conversation kind of reminded him of the time he first met Ellie back on the Sprawl.

At first, she didn't respond; she simply looked down at the ground, bot exactly sure what to say. She still felt like she should just be by herself, but she also knew that he was right. After much mental debating, she finally nodded lightly and slowly looked up at him.

"Okay... we'll stay together." Cynder replied quietly.

Isaac nodded back before his helmet folded out of his suit again and over his whole head. Once all the metal plates locked into place, they began to walk again, feeling much more confident than they earlier.

* * *

In another part of the mushroom swamp, the ape that had his arm severed by Isaac earlier was running as fast as he could through the dark swamp. He breathed shakily and held his bloody stump with his one good hand as he attempted to find more apes who could help him.

'The armored demon has returned! Oh no! Oh no! I need to tell Gaul about this!' the wounded ape screamed in his head as he trudged through the mud and foliage.

The skin underneath his fur began to pale however as he lost more and more blood. He felt his vision begin to blur and his body seemed heavier all of a sudden.

The ape slowed down to a stop and groaned as something very strange happened. He commenced to hear what sounded like faint whispers in the back of his mind. He couldn't tell what they were saying or which direction they were coming from, but it was extremely unnerving.

"H-hello...?" he stuttered as he slowly looked around.

The injured ape stiffened when he heard some ruffling leaves along with the whispers. He weakly turned around and relaxed slightly when he saw four other apes move away from some bushes.

"Damn, what happened to you?" one of the apes questioned gruffly, seemingly uncaring of his ally's missing limb.

The injured ape breathed heavily and didn't answer. With each passing second, the whispers got louder and louder and louder. His eyes darted around the area around them before they locked onto to apes in front of him.

"Don't you hear that?" he asked shakily, obviously very nervous About the din the whispers were making.

"Hear what?" one of the apes said sharply.

"The voices! Don't tell me you can't hear the voices!" the injured ape answered hysterically as he constantly looked around the area as if expecting to be jumped.

The other apes simply looked at the injured ape with confused expressions and they began to mumble to themselves, trying to figure out what they should do. As they talked to each other, their hurt ally started trembling and he adopted a cold sweat. The voices just kelt getting louder and more forceful.

"SHUT UP!" the young ape screeched before he used his remaining hand to repeatedly punch himself in the face.

The others watched with horror as he kept punching himself and they noticed that both his nose and mouth were bleeding now. They finally rushed forward to try to help the poor boy and one of them attempted to grab his arm.

"No! Get out of my head!" the injured ape screamed before he punched the ape who tried to grab his arm with all his might.

The force of the punch made the ape fall to the ground with a broken nose and it passed out. The others realized just how bad things were and they each attempted to tackle their insane "ally" to the ground.

The injured ape showed a surprising amount of strength for he was able to remain standing even when the remaining three apes tried to force him to the ground. His remaining arm flailed around and he ended up punching another ape, knocking the poor creature unconscious.

"Stay away from me!" the injured ape screamed as he quickly reached for another ape's belt.

The two remaining apes gasped and jumped back when he grabbed one of their swords. The injured ape looked at them with crazed eyes as he raised the sword up to his neck and began to drag the blade across his neck.

His allies merely watched with horrified eyes as his neck started bleeding profusely and he let out loud choking noises as he drowned in his own blood. The injured ape finally fell to the ground, twitched a little, and then laid still.

"W-why did he do that...? We were just trying to help him." one of the two apes questioned shakily, highly unnerved by what just happened.

"I don't know... maybe he went into shock from blood loss or something." the other ape replied, sounding equally as unnerved.

The first ape just shook his head in disgust before he walked over to one of their unconscious allies and attempted to wake him up. The other ape stared at the corpse in front of him before he turned to help the other knocked out ape.

* * *

At the Mountain of Malefor, Gaul, the ape king, was sitting on his throne. The room was fairly dark, but was partially lit flt banks to a few torches on the walls. The large ape wore his usual purple armor and his horned helmet. Both his normal eye and his crystal eye stared straight ahead as he thought about his plans to free his master.

There were many ape soldiers in the throne room along with him, but none of them spoke a word. None of them wished to bother their leader, who was obviously in deep thought. They knew better than to annoy their short tempered king.

Everyone looked towards the entrance however when they heard heavy footsteps approaching them. An ape clad in full, dark purple body armor walked into the room and kneeled before the ape king.

"What news do you have for me, Assassin?" Gaul questioned with a very guttural voice.

"The ape army and I attacked the Dragon Temple, as you requested, but we were pushed back by the Guardians. We were able to do significant damage and I personally saw the Purple Dragon of Legend there, but neither me nor my soldiers found Cynder." the armor wearing ape spoke with a muffled voice because of his helmet.

"Damn, we need to find that traitor." the ape king growled, not pleased that his men haven't found her yet.

"Sir, what are your orders?" the Assassin asked respectfully.

"The Guardians and the purple whelp will probably flee the Dragon Temple and try to find somewhere safe to go, possibly a city. I want you to have your men search everywhere from Tall Plains to Dante's Freezer. We cannot allow the purple whelp or the traitor to escape." Gaul spoke with a heavy frown on his wort covered face.

"As you wish, my lord." the armored ape replied and lowered his head in respect.

Gaul leaned back on his throne and simply flicked his hand, signaling for the armor clad ape to leave. The Assassin slowly stood up and walked out of the throne room without another word.

'How did Cynder manage to avoid the Assassin and my apes? I ordered them to search every crevice in that damn temple. Maybe she left or something." Gaul hypothesized as he rubbed his chin in thought.

The ape king groaned a little as he felt a headache in the back of his head. He's been having this headache for days on end now and it showed no signs of going away. It was not pounding or too strong, but it bothered him that it wouldn't go away.

'I swear, if this headache doesn't go away, I'm gonna rip someone's throat out.' he thought to himself and he glared at an ape who was approaching him.

"Would you like me yo get you a drink, my lord?" the smaller ape questioned with a slightly nervous voice.

"Yes... a strong one." the ape king replied with a small nod.

The smaller ape bowed in respect before he scampered off to get the drink. As he did so, the much larger ape looked up at the ceiling. Soon, it would be the Night of Eternal Darkness and his master would be reawakened. Gaul just hoped that he could capture Spyro and Cynder to offer them as "gifts" before then. As he thought of this, that small headache still lingered in the back of his skull, as if waiting for something.


	4. A Minor Annoyance

**Kwai kwai everyone! I just want to say thanks to everyone who's reading and reviewing this story, I really do appreciate it. Remember to leave a review or send me a PM!**

Chapter 4: A Minor Annoyance

Isaac and Cynder were walking together down a dirt path and it was still late at night. They were finally seeing signs that they were leaving the swamps however, which lightened their spirits. There were less giant mushrooms around them and they saw more and more normal trees.

They encountered a few toad weeds, which were frog like plants that dug into the ground, and death hounds, which were hostile wolf-like animals. All of those nocturnal animals were easily killed and or scared away thanks to the space engineer's flamethrower and their journey was barely impeded.

They had been walking for over an hour however and Cynder was beginning to suffer from exhaustion. Her human companion wasn't tired at all however because he was used to staying awake and fully alert all the way through the day.

"Wanna stop and find a place to rest?" Isaac asked all of a sudden when he noticed her droopy eyes and she had her head hung a little low.

"I do, but we probably shouldn't... *yawn* it's too dangerous to just rest out here." the dragoness answered tiredly as she slowly looked up at him.

Isaac sighed quietly because he knew she was right. He hoped that they could come across a cave or something so she could get some much needed sleep.

They both kept walking, but the armored man made sure to walk at a slow pace so his dragoness friend wouldn't have to struggle keep up with him. They both stopped and tensed up however when they heard voices up ahead.

"Damn! Where be Arborick?! We've been searchin' for 'em for hours!" a heavily accented male voice spoke up ahead.

"Ah, quit yer bellyaching! Just keep lookin'!" another male yelled.

There was rustling in the bushes all of a sudden and two humanoid creatures stepped out into the open. These creatures appeared to be canines with hunched backs and long, skinny arms. They both wore striped shirts with an open brown vest. They also each wore shorts and a red bandana was on their heads. They were each armed with a curved sword.

"Skavengers..." Cynder murmured so Isaac could hear.

The two pirates immediately looked over at the other two companions. They didn't hear her however, Isaac's bright blue visors contrasted with the rest of the darkness, giving away their position.

"Oy! Who are you two!?" one of the canine pirates questioned with a hostile snarl.

"You dumb shite! Don't ye recognize 'em? The big fella is the armored demon the apes have been talkin' about. And the draggy is the Terror of the Skies." the other Skavenger explained as if it was obvious.

"Really!? Maybe Captain Skabb'll give us something nice if we bring these two back with us!" the first pirate shouted excitedly.

"We're not going anywhere with you." Isaac said darkly as he raised his flamethrower, causing the built in flashlight to turn on and a blue laser dot to appear on the first Skavenger's chest.

"Um... I'm gonna tell everyone else to watch out for these two poofs. Good luck, mate!" the second pirate commented before he turned around and ran as fast as he could away from them.

The remaining Skavanger stood there dumbly for a few seconds before he registered what just happened. He became brave however wen he thought about the rewards he's get for capturing some of the realm's most powerful creatures by himself.

With a mighty battle cry, the lone pirate charged forward with his sword raised, ready for probably the most epic battle of his life. Isaac quickly squeezed the trigger however and an inferno of blue flames shot out of the mining tool.

The lone canine screamed loudly in agony as his body was engulfed in blue fire and he began to run around in circles, hoping that the fires would somehow go out. It didn't take long for his charred and partially melted body to fall to the ground with a thud, never to move again.

"A little overkill, don't you think?" Cynder asked as her human friend reloaded his flamethrower.

"No, I'd say that was just-enough-kill." the middle aged man answered as he put away his flamethrower because he was running out of fuel for it.

He equipped his pulse rifle at that moment and looked at the chest height dragoness next to him. She still looked very tired and he knew that she wasn't in any condition to be fighting.

"C'mon, Cynder. Let's see if we can find a place for you to sleep." the space engineer suggested with a calm tone of voice.

The black scaled dragoness nodded and they both started to walk around again. They decided to stray off the path this time because that's probably the first place the Skavengers would go to look for them.

After a few minutes of searching and much to Cynder's relief, they found a cave not too far from the path. They walked right over to the entrance and Isaac shined his pulse rifle's flashlight inside to check for hostile animals or creatures.

"Hello! Anyone in here!" he called out as he looked into the seemingly empty cave.

There was no response and the two companions glanced at one another. The space engineer decided to go in first and he cautiously stepped forward with his weapon raised. Cynder stayed close behind him and thy both carefully looked around.

It didn't take long for them to reach the end of the cave and there actually wasn't anyone or anything inside. Isaac kept his flashlight on so they could see however.

They saw a fire pit in the center of the cave and some leaves piled together to form a few sleeping pillows. The fire pit was cold however and it didn't look like anyone's lived in that cave for a long time.

"It looks like a family lived here once." the dragoness commented tiredly as she plopped down on one of the piles of leaves.

"Hm... I wonder where they went. It's like they left in a hurry." Isaac replied as his helmet began to fold into his suit's chest and back plates, exposing his aged face.

Cynder simply shrugged, too tired to investigate this at the moment. She just rested her head on her paws and closed her green eyes to sleep. After only seconds, her soft snoring could be heard.

Isaac couldn't help, but smile at her snores and he slowly sat down on the ground while he leaned against the wall. He still had his pulse rifle's light on and he kept his blue eyes on the cave entrance, keeping wstch so the dragoness so she could sleep. In a way, he kind of felt like a father protecting his young. He remembered how he and Nicole considered having children when she was still alive.

Isaac almost gasped at that moment and shook those thoughts away. The last thing he wanted to do was think about his dead girlfriend. He wanted to move on with his life. Nothing could brig her back and he knew it. He had Ellie back at Earth's moon now.

'Ellie's probably worried about me. Maybe I should've brought her along with me.' the engineer thought to himself with a frown and he rested his left hand on his stubble covered chin.

Isaac sighed at the thought of his current girlfriend. He hoped that she was able to get her eye replaced with the little amount of credits she had. He still couldn't believe that Stross did THAT to her. After protecting him with her life, he just cut her eye out with a damn screwdriver!

Sighing once again in an attempt to calm his nerves, the space engineer looked around the cave and he glanced at the sleeping dragoness not too far from him.

There was a sudden snap of a twig and Isaac quickly perked his head up. There was a light whizzing noise before he felt a sudden prick in his neck. He grunted lightly and rested his freehand on the injury, only to feel a dart sticking out of the side of his neck.

"Oh no..." he murmured as he felt his vision become hazy and dark.

The engineer tried desperately to stay awake, but the dart's drug was already spreading throughout his system. After mere seconds, his head drooped and he was out cold.

At the cave's entrance, half a dozen Skavengers could be seen. One of them was holding a peashooter while two others held large nets.

"That was easier than I thought it'd be." the pirate holding the peashooter commented with a dark cackle.

"Yeah. We're gonna be rich! Shoot the dragon bitch too so she won't wake up." another canine ordered.

The one with a peashooter nodded before he slid a dart into the narrow tube, took a deep breath, and exhaled through the tube. The dart hit Cynder's side and her body flinched, but didn't wake up.

"Great; now let's bag 'em and get hack to the ship!" a third Skavenger said, sounding eager.

The two canines holding the nets approached their new captors and draped the nets over them. They were all excited to get paid for this catch. They knew that their captain would be pleased with them.

* * *

Isaac groaned as he finally began to awaken. His blue eyes slowly opened to see what looked like metal bars in front of him and a wooden wall in the background. He realized that he was laying down on his side, so he slowly sat up.

"How the fuck did I get here?" the engineer asked himself when he realized that he was in a cage that wasn't tall enough to allow him to stand.

The room he was in wasn't very well lit and smelled of bodily waste, much to the human's discomfort. He took a closer look around the room and noticed more cages with animals, moles, cheetahs, young dragons, and some other races he didn't recognize in them.

Isaac's eyes widened however when he didn't see Cynder anywhere and he frantically looked around for her. He then looked at his body and saw that his tools were gone. His helmet was still off and he thankfully still had his kinesis module.

"Cynder! Cynder! Where are you!" the middle aged man called out as he gripped his cage's metal bars with his gloved hands.

"Yer evil dragon friend is locked away in another room. Now shut up." a Skavenger guard informed him as it walked by his cage.

The space engineer scoffed in irritation as he glared at the guard. He couldn't believe these guys actually caught him. And without his tools, he was trapped like this.

Sobbing could be heard to his left and Isaac looked over at the cage next to him to see a dragoness crying. The dragoness had bright pink scales and her tailblade was in the shape of a heart. She couldn't have been any older than Spyro or Cynder.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked softly, feeling pity for the child.

"N-no... I'm scared..." the pink dragoness answered as she looked up at him with her bright blue eyes. "They took me and my mommy yesterday... and I can't find mommy anywhere." she added with a sniff.

"I can't find a friend of mine anywhere Either. A guard said she's locked in another room though. Maybe your mom's with my friend." Isaac comforted with a look of sympathy.

"Y-you really t-think so...?" she stuttered with hope in her tear filled eyes.

"I'm positive. What's your name anyway?" the aged engineer asked curiously.

"Emberella... but most people just call me Ember." the pink dragoness answered as she slowly wiped the tears out of her eyes.

"Ember... I'll remember that. I'm Isaac." the armored human introduced with a small smile.

The child smiled and even though they were separated because of the cages, she scooted a little closer to him. Isaac figured that he was her only source of comfort right now. She was still obviously upset about not finding her mother anywhere, but at least she had someone to make her feel somewhat safe, even if it was a total stranger.

The small moment of peace was crushed however when a small group of armed Skavengers walked into the room. Everyone, but the animals went completely silent when they entered and the canines grinned at them all.

Everyone watched as the pirates walked over to Isaac's cage and the guard from earlier opened the cage.

"Get out, armored demon. You're wanted at Fellmuth Arena." one of the canines said with a chuckle.

"And if I refuse?" Isaac stated with a straight face, not giving them the satisfaction of lashing out or appearing distressed.

"Then you'll be stuck in this cage for a week without food or water." the Skavenger said simply.

The engineer mentally scowled and slowly made his way out of the cage. He glanced at Ember and gave her a reassuring look. "I'll be back, I promise." he told her before two of the pirates roughly grabbed his arms and he was escorted out of the room.

Ember watched him be practically dragged out with a look of worry and sadness. She knew exactly where they were taking him and she prayed to the Ancestors that he'd be safe.

* * *

Isaac was escorted down a few hallways until they reached a large metal door, which was much different compared to the wooden doors they've been passing.

"Okay, here's the drill. You wait to be called and for the gate to open. Then you go out into the arena, defeat your opponent for the crowd, and we'll bring you back to your cage afterwords. If you do good, then you might be given a reward for yer efforts." one of the Skavengers informed the human as another one opened the metal door.

The engineer roughly pulled his arms free of the two canines grip and nodded with a heavy frown. He slowly walked ito the empty room and heard a din as the door slammed shut behind him. The back and chest plates on his suit detached slightly as pieces of his helmet began to slide over his head and they locked into place. After his whole head was completely covered, the helmet's visors began to glow bright blue.

Muffled cheering could be heard outside the large wooden door in front of him, which he guessed led to the arena. Not having much else to do, he decided to listen to the announcer.

"...and we have a new gladiator who his mighty eager to fight! I'm sure you've all heard of this baddie! Everyone! Please give a warm welcome to... Isaac Clarke, the armored demon!" the announcer boomed before the crowd exploded with cheers and hollers.

'How the fuck did they learn my name?' the engineer questioned in his head as the door in front of him slid open, allowing sunlight to enter the dark room.

Isaac took a deep breath before he walked out into the arena. He looked around to see the huge crowd cheering for him and he could see random sails positioned around the stadium. His attantion was drown ahead when he heard the announcer, which turned out to be a parrot on what appeared to be the captain's shoulder, speak again.

"This armored demon will be fighting one of your favorites! Please welcome the ice giant from Dante's Freezer... Giwakwa!" the announcer boomed before the gate opposite of the engineer slid open.

Isaac was a little surprised when a tall humanoid creature made entirely out of ice stepped into the arena. This creature had what looked like muscles on it's white, icy body, and it had blueish, shoulder length hair made out of what looked like snow. It's eyes were glowing blue and it was carrying a wooden spear with a stone spearhead at the end of it.

"These two contestants will be fighting to the death! The fight will begin in three... two... one... FIGHT!" the parrot announcer boomed the final word and the fight commenced.

Giwakwa growled with it's mouth open, revealing it's razor sharp ice teeth, as it began to march forward with it's spear pointed directly at the smaller human. Isaac loudly cursed when it attempted to stab him in the chest. He quickly dived to the left and rolled in the sand before he stood up again.

'How am I gonna beat this thing without any tools or weapons?' the armored human questioned in his head as he quickly backstopped to make some distance between him and the ice giant.

He cried out in pain however when the ice giant leapt forward and smashed the wooden end of it's spear again's the engineer, causing his health bar to drop a little and he fell to the ground. The ice giant was about to stab him while he was down, but he quickly rolled to the right and dodged the attack. As it pried it's spear out of the ground, it's human opponent quickly stood up.

Giwakwa's glowing blue eyes narrowed as it glared a it's opponent and it began to spin it's spear in a clockwise motion. Before Isaac could figure out what it was trying to do, it quickly leaned back and threw it's spear in his general direction.

Thinking quickly, space engineer raised his left hand and activated his kinesis module. A gravity tether shot out of the small device and hit the spear mid-flight.

The crowd gasped in amazement and the ice giant's eyes widened as the spear quickly floated in front of Isaac and spun around so it was pointing at it's original owner. The engineer then shot the hovering spear with his kinesis module, causing it to fly through the air as fast as a bullet.

The spear pierced Giwakwa's chest and it flew through the air until the tip of the spear lodged into the wall across the arena, causing the ice giant to be pinned in place.

The crowd cheered loudly as they yelled "kill" over and over again. Isaac raised his left hand to retrieve the spear again, when he saw the creature lower it's head in defeat.

"Fuck you people..." he mumbled under his breath as he lowered his hand and turned around.

He crowd started booing as the middle aged man walked over to the gate he entered from, which began to open as he approached.

"So the demon does have a heart! Isaac Clarke wins!" the parrot announcer shouted as the crowd continued to boo.

**(The Giwakwa originates from Native American mythology, specifically from the Abenaki, Penobscot, Maliseet, and Passamaquoddy tribes. The creature was a man-eating ice giant that was once human cannibals.)**


	5. Spartacus 2 0

**Kwai kwai everyone! Now Isaac and Cynder are being forced to fight just like the slaves in the Roman Empire were forced to fight. These gladiator fights were usually very bloody and as you all probably know, I'm not afraid to show this blood and gore in the slightest. Remember to leave a review or send me a PM!**

Chapter 5: Spartacus 2.0

Isaac Clarke entered the dark room that separated the entrance from the rest of the pirate ship with a frown. He heard the sound of the gate close behind him and the crowd's cheering became muffled. Saying that he was unhappy would be an understatement. He hated how he was forced to fight creatures he knew nothing about for these pirates.

His train of thought was broken when the metal door in front of him opened. He mentally scoffed when he saw the Skavengers who escorted him to the arena in the first place. None of them looked happy at all.

"Why didn't you kill Giwakwa?" one of them questioned with a frustrated growl.

Refusing to answer, Isaac silently stared at the group of canines. The only sound he made was his faint breathing behind his helmet.

"Creepy fuck." another pirate mumbled before two of them walked into the room and roughly grabbed the human's arms.

They pulled the engineer out of the room and practically dragged him back to the room with all the cages. On e they returned to his cage, they shoved him inside and locked him in.

"The next time you go fight, bloody kill the fool your facing." the Skavenger who first spoke scolded before they walked off.

Once they were out of the room, Isaac looked to his left to see Ember staring at him with what looked like both relief and fear. He figured that his helmet was scaring her, so he willed his helmet to fold into his suit.

This caught the attention of many of the other people in cages and they watched with interest as his helmet disassembled and were tucked into his suit. Once it was over however, they all immediately looked away.

"Isaac, I'm so glad you're okay. Were you hurt?" the young dragoness asked worriedly yet quietly

"Yeah, I'm okay. I got hit a little, but I'm fine." the space engineer replied as he had his suit perform a quick heal, which automatically used one of his health packs heal his wounds..

He instantly felt better as the holographic health bar on his spine went up from yellow-green to bright blue. Once he was fully healed, he started talking again.

"They haven't made you fight, have they?" Isaac asked with a frown, knowing that he'd probably kill the closest Skavenger if they have.

"No... the guard says I'm not old enough to fight yet... but he said I could avoid fighting when I'm older if... if..." Ember didn't have the heart to finish that sentence and she looked down sadly.

'Perverted bastards.' Isaac cursed in his head and he looked up to glare at the guard across the room, who was carelessly sharpening a knife.

"I don't wanna fight, Isaac... but I don't wanna do that stuff either. I want my mommy..." the pink scaled dragoness said shakily as tears began to form in her eyes.

"Hey, hey, I'm here. I won't let them do anything to you. I'm gonna find a way to get us out of here; all o us." the armored human assured with a soft voice, but with a stern expression.

"I hope so..." Ember sighed as she laid down on her belly and lowered her head. "I wanna take a nap." she said sleepily; it looked like she hasn't slept for at least a day.

"Go ahead. I'll watch over you." Isaac replied as he leaned back, feeling his back press against the metal bars.

Ember yawned with her mouth wide open before she laid down on her belly. she glanced up at the human in the cage next to her before she closed her blue eyes. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

Isaac flinched when he felt someone tap his shoulder and he turned around to look at the person in the cage behind his own. He was surprised to see what looked like a gargoyle.

This gargoyle appeared to be male and if he wasn't sitting down in the cramped caged, he would've been maybe two or three heads taller than Isaac. His muscular body was gray in color and looked thick like stone. He was wearing a leather lion cloth with tattered shorts made out of white cloth under it. His fingers ended with black claws and he possessed large bat wings on his back. His face resembled that of a lamb with ram horns and fangs could be seen poking out of his lips.

"You're doing a good thing, supporting that child." the gargoyle spoke with a very scratchy voice as he stared at the human with his fully black eyes.

"No one else was." Isaac replied with a simple shrug. "Who're you?" he asked curiously.

"I am Forseti... an elder from my village." the gargoyle replied hesitantly, sounding as if he wasn't expecting the response he got from the armored human.

"Nice name. I'm Isaac Clarke, an engineering specialist." the middle aged man introduced.

"Hm, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Not many have any love for my kind, but we are all equal here." Forseti replied as he slowly looked at all the people and animals in cages.

Isaac figured that other races didn't like the gargoyles because of the way they looked, but he didn't voice his hypothesis. He didn't want to upset a potential ally.

"Listen Isaac, there's something I should tell you that involves the child." the gargoyle commented with a nod directed at Ember. "Do not tell her this, but her mother died three days ago in the arena." he spoke with a straight face.

"What? Shit... who killed her?" the engineer questioned with a distressed tone of voice.

"Some Skavenger contraption that they call the Ravage Rider. I heard she was refusing to have sex with Captain Skabb, so they chained her up, threw her in the arena, and the damn machine practically tortured her in front of everyone. I heard it took her an hour to finally die." Forseti explained before he mumbled something in another language, possibly a prayer.

"That's fucking horrible. I don't understand why people have to do terrible things like that to innocent people." Isaac commented with a look of disgust.

"Neither do I. All of these Skavangers need to pay for their crimes." the gargoyle agreed with a nod.

Their conversation was ended abruptly when the door slammed open and the small group of pirates from before entered the room. They immediately walked over to Isaac's cage and unlocked it.

"You're scheduled for another fight, demon." one of them spoke with a gruff voice.

"Already?! I just fought for you!" Isaac shouted angrily as he glared at the pirates.

"The crowd wants to see ya actually kill something. Now get out of your cage, now." that same Skavenger answered with his thin arms crossed over his chest.

"Fine... but if I ever escape, you better hope i don't find you." the engineer said darkly as he crawled out of the cage and stood up straight.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." the pirate chuckled in amusement before he and another one of them grabbed the human's arms.

As he was escorted out, Isaac couldn't help, but notice another group of Skavengers walk into the room he was leaving. He frowned because he had a hunch that his opponent would be from the very room he was kept in. He just hoped it was an animal or something so he wouldn't have to kill an innocent person.

Just like last time, he was taken to metal door that led to the "waiting room" as the Skavengers called it. As one of them opened the door, the one who spoke earlier grinned.

"I left you a little present inside. It should make things easier for you and entertaining for us." he commented with a chuckle.

'Fucker.' the middle aged man thought bitterly as he walked into the room and the metal door closed behind him.

Isaac looked around the room he was in and he noticed that the floor was covered in dry bloodstains, something he didn't notice before. He looked upwards a little and noticed a seating bench against the wall to his left. His blue eyes widened however when he spotted his javelin gun resting on it, seemingly undamaged.

Isaac's helmet began to fold over his head and locked into place before he made his way over to his tool, his helmet's glowing visors providing some light. Once he was close enough, he carefully picked up the tool and noticed that they even left his ammunition that he had for it.

The armored engineer looked over the javelin gun to see if the Skavengers did anything to it. He was pleased to find out that i had barely been touched and he stored the titanium javelin spears into his inventory. He could hear the parrot announcers speaking to the crowd to get them excited, but he wasn't paying any attention to them. He just cleared his head and took deep breaths to stay calm.

After a few tense moments, the crowd cheered loudly and the large wooden door opened. Isaac walked into the arena with his javelin gun in both hands. He was mostly staring at the sandy ground to avoid the crowd's gaze, but he looked up after a bit to see his opponent.

He was completely shocked to see Forseti himself standing at the other end of the arena. They both stared at each other and Isaac could tell that the gargoyle didn't want to fight at all and looked very surprised. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that Forseti wasn't even armed.

"These two contestants must fight for their lives! Bring on the pain!" one of the parrot announcers shouted with a male voice as it flew over the arena.

Everyone watched as the parrot flew over the area before it finally landed on a large Skavenger's right shoulder, who had another parrot resting on his left shoulder. Upon closer inspection, the large canine could be seen wearing a stereotypical pirate hat, a scar was over his face, his hand was replaced with a hook, one of his legs was replaced with what looked like a small cannon, and a treasure chest could be seen strapped to his back. Isaac guessed that this pirate was Captain Skabb.

"The fight will begin in three... two... one!" the other pirate shouted and the crowd cheered excitedly.

The two fighters didn't move or attack however, nor did they show any signs of doing either. They simply stared at one another and the crowd slowly went quiet as time went on.

"I don't want to fight you." Forseti stated after a long moment of silence.

"Neither do I." the space engineer replied honestly as he held his javelin gun with one hand and had it pointed at the ground.

As soon as he finished saying that however, the crowd started booing them. They screamed profanities and yelled for them to fight, but neither contestant made any sort of movements.

Captain Skabb himself raised his arms and roared loudly so that everyone could hear. The crowd immediately shut up when they heard the roar and everyone looked at him. Instead of speaking, the parrot on his right shoulder started talking.

"Due to the two gladiators refusal to fight each other, there has been a change of plans. Isaac Clarke and Forseti the Gargoyle will now fight side by side against... Nagas!" the parrot shouted.

The crowd erupted in loud cheers once more and the two combatants looked over at one another. They slowly moved closer to each other so that they could watch each others back. One of the wooden doors of the arena slid open and hisses could be heard within the dark room.

All of a sudden, eight snake-like creatures quickly slithered into the arena and the door slammed shut behind them. These creatures were each covered in sand colored scales. Their upper bodies resembled that of humans, but the lower half resembled a serpent or snake. Their heads were bald and the females had visible breasts. Each of them had four arms with sharp claws on their fingertips, but some of the nagas were carrying swords of various designs.

The creatures quickly surrounded the two combatants, who had adopted combat stances. Isaac quickly took aim at the closest naga with his javelin gun and squeezed the trigger. A titanium javelin shot out of the tool and hit the naga on the shoulder, causing it to flinch and hiss loudly in pain. Instead of backing off or falling however, it curled it's tail irritably and bent down to leap at him.

Before the naga could do anything however, Isaac shot it again with his tool. This time, the javelin spear caused the snake monster to fly through the air away from everyone until it was pinned to the wall. It hissed in agony as it tried to pull itself free, but it just caused itself to bleed more by doing that.

The armored engineer was about to finish it off when another naga tackled him to the ground and he grunted in pain when he hit the ground. The monster hissed in his face with it's mouth open wide, showing off it's intimidating fangs.

The snake monster was about to bite into him when it was kicked to the side suddenly. Isaac looked at Forseti, who had just kicked the creature away. The gargoyle quickly grabbed his gloved hand before pulling him to his feet.

"Mind all your surroundings. These ones are quick." Forseti stated as he panted lightly.

The middle aged man nodded in understanding before he glanced at the naga pinned to the wall and activated the secondary fire. The spear that pinned onto the wall began to emit a lethal burst of electricity and after much struggle, the monster finally went limp with small patches of flames on it's body.

Isaac heard hissing behind him, so he quickly spun around and shot the javelin gun. A naga had leapt at him when he had his back turned, but it wasn't expecting him to react so quickly.

The javelin spear directly punctured it's skull and it's head ripped off as the spear kept flying through the air. The spear only stopped when it hit the arena's wall, keeping the severed head pinned like a trophy.

As Isaac fought, Forseti smashed the fallen naga's head with his foot and looked over at three others. They each hissed menacingly and held up their swords.

The gargoyle growled as he crouched down into an animalistic combat stance. Two of the nagas slithered over to him at a fast pace, but he quickly flapped his wings as he leapt up into the air, making him jump much higher than he usually would.

The third naga jumped up as well to hit him while he was in the air, but Forseti was expecting this. He braced himself for impact and grunted painfully as the large snake monster smashed into him. As they fell to the ground however, the gargoyle bit into the naga's neck, much to it's surprise.

Unknown to the naga, gargoyles had hollow fangs that stored venom. This venom could be used to both poison people and even cure diseases if the gargoyle willed it to.

As they landed on the ground, Forseti pumped his venom into the practically helpless snake creature with a look of rage in his eyes. The naga hissed as it began to spasm and it suddenly went limp on top of the gargoyle.

Once the naga was dead, Forseti pulled his fangs out and groaned as he slowly shoved the corpse to the side. He slowly stood up once he caught his breath and looked at his human friend.

Isaac had killed off a few other nagas with his javelin gun and only one remained. Unfortunately, he got hit a few times and his health bar was now blinking red.

Forseti noticed how tired his friend was from the fighting and gasped when the remaining naga, a female, smashed it's tail into the space engineer's legs, causing him to trip and land on his back, dropping his tool in the process.

The gargoyle snarled furiously, showing off his fangs, as he scooped up one of the monsters' dropped swords and rushed over to the monster Threatening to kill his new friend. It saw him coming however and speedily moved to the side, dodging a swipe from his sword.

'I won't let this monster hurt the only person here who cares about my existence!' Forseti screamed in his head as he rushed over at the naga with a slouched back.

The naga kept dodging his attacks and it seemed to chuckle as it hissed. The gargoyle snarled furiously as he got more and more angry from his failed attacks.

He growled in pain when the naga rushed forward suddenly and slashed at his chest with it's claws however, but his adrenaline allowed him to ignore the pain for now. With a roar of pure fury, Forseti held the sword he had taken earlier with two hands and he lunged forward with the weapon pointing straight ahead.

The naga actually screeched when the sword pierced through it's humanoid stomach and it slowly looked down at the brick red blood pouring out of it's new wound.

They both flinched however when a javelin spear was shot through the side of it's head. The spear held enough force to easily decapitate the creature.

The headless naga fell to the sandy ground with the sword still inside it with a thump. Forseti quickly looked over at Isaac to see that he was just barely standing and he was lowering his javelin gun.

"Fuck this place." the armored engineer spat before he fell to the ground and blacked out.


	6. Dwell Into Madness

**Kwai kwai nidobak! It is nice to see that this story is getting some positive attention. I have a lot of plans for this story and, dare I say, the future sequel to this story. I know this is mostly focusing on The Legend of Spyro themes, but Dead Space themes will come into play very soon. Remember to leave a review or send me a PM!**

Chapter 6: Dwell Into Darkness

"Forseti the Gargoyle and Isaac Clarke wins!" the two parrot announcers resting on Captain Skabb's shoulders boomed in unison once they saw the final naga's headless corpse fall to the ground.

The crowd at Fellmuth Arena cheered loudly after they heard this and many of them collected bet money. Forseti however, simply stared at his human friend's unconscious body for awhile. If it weren't for the human's chest slightly raising and falling, he would've assumed his friend was dead.

Finally, the elder gargoyle gently picked up the armored man, bridal style, and walked towards one of the exiting gates. He glanced down to see the passed out human was faintly resting his gloved hand on the javelin gun that was on his stomach area.

Looking up again, Forseti noticed that the gate had been opened, so he entered the "waiting room" while he still carried Isaac. The large wooden gate closed behind them and he stood there in the darkness for a few moments. The metal door on the other end of the room opened and the small group of Skavenger's could be seen waiting on the other end.

"That was quite the show! Not what we expected, but damn good all the same!" one of the pirates shouted with a toothy smirk, showing off the teeth he still possessed.

"We'll just take that weapon of his and lead ye two back to yer cages." another canine stated cheerfully.

"Just do no damage it." Forseti stated harshly as he watched the Skavenger grab the javelin gun and pulled it away from the unconscious engineer.

"Oh, don't worry, lad. We'll take good care of it. I wanna see this thing be used to kill more people." the pirate holding the advanced tool assured with a smirk.

With all that said and done, the Skavengers lead the gargoyle back to the room with all the cages. Once there, the pirates ordered Forseti to throw the human into his cage. Instead, he walked over to the open cage, and gently placed Isaac inside with his head leaning against the bars.

"It'd be funnier if ye just threw 'em in." one of the pirates mumbled quietly.

Forseti sharply turned his head at the Skavengers and growled deep in his throat. This caused them to flinch in surprise and they watched the gargoyle slowly get into the cramped cage he was forced to stay in. One of the pirates quickly shut the door and locked it once he was in, as if expecting him to jump out and attack at any moment.

Once their job was done, the canines quickly left the room, leaving the guard to aimlessly wander around the room like usual. The guard seemed bored out of his mind and wasn't really paying too much attention to the prisoners.

Forseti sighed quietly and looked over at Ember's cage. He was a little surprised to see her awake and she was staring at Isaac's unconscious body with a look of worry on her face.

"Is... is he alive?" she asked quietly, just above a whisper.

"Yes... he passed out in the arena however. I carried him back here." the gargoyle answered with a calm tone of voice.

Ember jumped a little in surprise because she wasn't expecting him to reply. Her blue eyes quickly traveled from Isaac to the gargoyle in the cage next to her friend.

"I-Is... is he gonna be okay?" she asked very shyly, not sure whether it was good or not to talk to a gargoyle.

"I do not know... he was hit pretty hard a few times." Forseti answered honestly as he glanced at the human's blinking red health bar.

"Oh..." the pink dragoness replied as her head drooped a little with sadness.

At first, they were both quiet. The two of them simply stared at their human friend's unconscious body. Finally, after what felt like forever, the gargoyle spoke up.

"My name is Forseti." he introduced as he looked over at the dragoness. "Your name is Ember, correct?" he added.

"Y-yes." she stuttered a little nervously, bot sure how he figured out her name.

"I overheard your conversation with Isaac earlier. That's how I knew your name." the gargoyle explained to her, not wanting her to be scared of him.

"Oh... okay." Ember replied as she relaxed a little; she wasn't expecting a gargoyle of all creatures to be so nice. "Um... what should we do about Isaac?" she asked quietly.

"The only thing we can really do is wait for him to wake up. I don't see any skin I can bite into to heal him right now." Forseti replied grimly.

"Why would you bite him? Wouldn't that make things worse?" the young dragoness asked with a confused expression.

"No... us gargoyles can heal people and cure diseases with our venom. Not many non-gargoyles know this." Forseti answered before he quietly mumbled something in his own language.

"Really? Gargoyles can heal people by biting them?" Ember asked, completely taken by surprise.

"Yes, my people are very capable healers and alchemists because of this." the gargoyle answered with a nod of confirmation.

"Wow... that's actually pretty cool." the pink dragoness replied with a small smile.

Forseti curved the edges of his lips to form a slight smile when she said that. He was amused by the child's curiosity and it almost made him forget about the current predicament they were in.

"Thank you." the gargoyle spoke finally after a short moment of silence.

"What for?" Ember questioned with a raised eyebrow, showing off her confusion.

"For being interested... in my people, I mean." he explained before he glanced at the guard, who was looking at a magazine or newspaper of some kind.

"Oh, you're welcome." the pink dragoness replied with a smile.

They both fell into silence after that and they each looked over at Isaac, who was still unconscious. They just hoped that he would wake up soon and unharmed.

* * *

Cynder sighed heavily as she blankly stared at the barred window within the room she was kept in. Unlike most prisoners, she was locked into a room by herself without a cage.

The room supported a pile of hay to be used as a bed and a barred window to allow at least some light into the room. There weren't any toilets she could use and the room stank from past residents, who were probably killed in the arena at some point.

The floor and walls were made of wood and the wooden door on the other end of the room was locked from the outside. Cynder had nowhere to go and she knew it.

'Where is Isaac? I hope he's okay...' the dragoness thought to herself as she pressed her paws over the tip of her snout in an attempt to block the putrid smell.

Cynder didn't know that most other poisoners didn't get their own rooms, so she assumed that her human friend was locked away in a room similar to hers. She did know however that the pirates wanted them to fight in the arena because she's already fought two separate opponents. The first one was a simple cheetah who looked to be very sick. She won the fight by killing him mostly out of mercy because he was so sick. In her second fight, she had to battle a sworm of bulb spiders. She had to rely on her speed and agility to win that fight because she still couldn't use her elements, much to her frustration.

So now the dragoness sat in the dark, smelly room; waiting to be called to fight again. She really didn't want to go out and kill for the Skavengers' amusement, but she didn't ant to stay in this horrible room either. It all almost made her wish that she never left the safety of the temple.

There was also something else that bothered her. The headaches that she's ben receiving recently have only gotten worse since she and Isaac were captured. The headaches would occasionally feel like they were pounding in her skull, but they only occurred like that in short bursts. It was very strange to her because she's never experienced headaches like this before.

At this moment, something happened that the dragoness dreaded gratefully. A very soft whisper could be heard within the darkness. It was speaking too quickly and softly for her to understand what it was saying, but she could hear it.

"Not again..." Cynder groaned in distress, remembering how she heard voices and saw hallucinations during her final hours as the Terror of the Skies.

The whisper slowly began to die down after she said that, only for another one to take it's place. This new whisper was different. It was distinctly female and it sounded like it was singing. The black scaled dragoness toned out all other noises so she could try to make out what the voice was singing.

_Ring around the rosie,_

_Pocket full of posies,_

_Ashes... ashes,_

_We all fall down._

_Ring around the rosie,_

_What do you suppose we,_

_Can do to fight the darkness,_

_In which we drown?_

_Ring around the rosie,_

_This evil thing, it knows me,_

_Lost ghosts surround me..._

_I can't fall down._

When the son ended, Cynder was basically trembling in fear. She remembered that voice when it sang to her while she was still evil. At first she thought this meant her darkness was resurfacing, but she ruled that out because it didn't feel like her darkness.

Whatever that singing and her headaches represented, it filled the dragoness with fear and dread. She knew that something was definitely wrong and she had a gut feeling that something bad was going to happen and soon.

Cynder flinched when she heard the sound of her cell door being unlocked and she watched as the wooden door flung open. She could see them standing outside the room, probably wanting to avoid the room's foul odor.

'Bastards.' the black scaled dragoness thought to herself as she glared at the canines; she was grateful that the voices and singing finally stopped however.

"You've been scheduled for another fight. Get yer arse out here now." one of the pirates ordered as they all grinned widely.

Ignoring their wicked smiles, Cynder slowly stood up and walked over to the exit. She inhaled and exhaled deeply once she was out of the room, happy to breath in some somewhat fresh air.

"Couldn't you guys at least clean up that place before throwing me in there?" she asked bitterly as she glared at the pirates.

"Nope. Ye deserve to rot in filth; especially after de shit you pulled when you were bigger. Yer lucky we don't lock ye in the septic tank!" the pirate who spoke earlier answered with a laugh at the end.

The dragoness growled furiously at that and was about to tackle the Skavenger to the ground, but she stopped when the others each rested a hand on their sheathed swords' handles. She just scoffed and looked away from them. She could still feel her headache in he back of her skull, but it wasn't pounding anymore.

"Who am I fighting this time?" she asked quietly with a grumble.

"Now now, that's a surprise, cunt. You'll find out when ye get to de arena." the canine answered mockingly with an amused chuckle.

Cynder physically flinched when he called her that. She couldn't even describe how much she hated that "c" word. She remembered how the apes would always call her that back when she was first training to be the Terror of the Skies. That very word scarred her and made her very upset when she was called that.

"Alright, cunt, you know the drill. Follow us to the 'waiting room' and you'll be fighting in no time." the main Skavenger laughed before the began to walk down the hall.

The dragoness's lower lip quivered as she followed them with her head down. She didn't utter a word as they walked to a fight that could very well possibly get her killed.

By the time they reached the large metal door that led to the "waiting room," one of the other pirates opened it for her and stepped aside so she could enter. Before she could go in however, the one who spoke earlier roughly smacked her hindquarters, making her jump with a surprised yelp.

"I hope you come back, because I'm gonna have some fun with ya afterwords." the canine informed her with a toothy grin.

With a furious growl, the dragoness whipped around to face him. She was obviously very angry now and was trembling with rage.

"I don't care if I'm your prisoner. If you so much as touch me like that again... I'll rip your FUCKING BALLS OFF!" she boomed before storming into the other room.

The other pirates laughed as the perverted Skavenger just stared at her with wide, almost fearful eyes. One of the others simply closed the metal door and they left to watch the fight.

Cynder just snorted angrily at their laughter and the metal door slammed shut behind her. She could hear the parrot announcers out in the arena, but she chose to ignore them. She groaned as her headache continued to bother her.

The door to the arena slid open all of a sudden and she heard one of the parrots shout her name, most likely to the crowd. She just sighed as she walked through the doorframe and into the open. She stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted someone familiar. Her opponent was a dragon her age... and with purple scales.

* * *

Back in the room with all the cages, Isaac groaned as he began to awaken finally. He slowly lifted his head up and looked around. He mentally sighed when he noticed that he was back in his cage.

"Isaac! You're okay!" Ember shouted with a relieved expression.

The armored engineer looked over at the pink dragoness, and then Forseti. He hypothesized that thy had been watching him sleep, most likely worried if he'd wake up at all. Those Nagas did pack quite a punch.

"Hey... good to see you two. Fuck, I'm sore..." Isaac groaned as he slowly sat up, which allowed the other prisoners to glance at the blinking red health bar on his spine. "How long was I out?" he couldn't help, but ask.

"A little under an hour." Forseti answered with his usual scratchy voice. "Are you alright?" he questioned.

Before he answered, the middle aged man activated his suit's quick heal and his health bar went all the way up his spine before glowing light blue again.

"I am now... and you?" he replied as he willed his helmet to disassemble and shift into his suit, allowing his face to he seen.

"I am doing just peachy." Forseti answered sarcastically with a smirk.

Isaac and Ember smiled at this response and they both chuckled. They were about to continue their conversation when they heard a faint explosion and the entire ship trembled lightly. Then another explosion was heard, and then a third.

"Wha' de fuck was that?" the Skavenger guard shouted as he began to rush towards the door.

The canine walked a little too close to the prisoners' cages however because Forseti roughly grabbed hold of his neck and twisted it, letting out a loud crack for all to hear. The guard's lifeless body slumped to the floor and the gargoyle dug his hands into the corpse's pockets. He was able to find a rusty key made out of iron and he used it to unlock his cage.

"By he ancestors! He just killed that guy!" one of the cheetah prisoners whispered loudly as everyone directed their attention at the escaped gargoyle.

"Who bloody cares? This is our chance to escape." a manweersmall replied as he gripped the bars of his cage.

Forseti ignore them and unlocked all the cages one by one, including the animals' cages. Isaac's helmet folded out of his suit and covered his hole head as he walked out of his cage. The now free animals immediately ran out of the room, but everyone else stayed. Some of them looked scared, but the majority of them looked angry.

"Now's our chance! Grab everything you can use as a weapon and kill the shit out of anything that tries to stop us!" the space engineer shouted to the now free prisoners.

Everyone nodded and some even roared battle cries as they grabbed any weapons they could. A cheetah took the guard's sword while everyone else pried wooden boards off the floor and walls. one person even grabbed a chair that was in the room and gave it a few test swings. Anyone who was unarmed either cracked their knuckles or balled their hands into fists. Forseti walked over to the Skavenger's corpse and took the knife that was hidden in it's boot.

"Stay close to us, young one. We'll protect you." the gargoyle told Ember as he motioned towards himself and Isaac.

The pink dragoness nodded and they all walked out of the room together. More explosions could be heard outside the ship and everyone knew that this would probably be their only chance of escape. If they didn't at least attempt to escape now, then they'd spend the rest of their lives as the Skavengers' slaves.


End file.
